Firing off more ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, North Korea’s 38-year-old erratic leader Kim Jong-un sent a loud message to the Biden White House at a time of crisis with Russia. Biden has created the crisis in Ukraine, complicating the picture for U..S. national security, certainly dealing with a nuisance like Kim Jong-un. But because Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been fixated on Russia and China, they’ve left U.S. national security vulnerable. Biden and Blinken have been so antagonistic toward Russia and China since taking office, they’ve wrecked the traditional foreign policy linkage where the U.S. keeps close relations with its adversaries for the purpose of managing other national security hotspots around the globe. But, no, Biden and Blinken have done everything possible to burn bridges with Russia and China. since taking office.
Kim’s recent ballistic missile launches have been met with more punitive U.S. sanctions, the exact wrong approach with Kim, destined for more ballistic missile launches, all because North Korea wants more attention and concessions from the United States. Today’s ballistic missile launches flew 400 kilometers [267] miles at an altitude of 36 kilometers [22 miles], hardly the kind of threat the U.S. should be concerned about. Firing off sanctions was the most counterproductive step, bound to give Kim more ammunition with which to irritate the U.S. Kim has been playing with hypersonic missiles, emulating the Russian Federation, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have been working on the same technology. Kim’s progress toward a hypersonic, high-speed, missile, is far more backward, than its Russian and Chinese counterparts.
Unlike Biden, former President Donald Trump had a good working relationship with Kim Jong-un, despite all the criticism Trump received from the fake news media. Whenever Trump showed good rapport with Putin, Jinping or Kim, the media would slam Trump as cozying up to dictators, showing the supreme partisan hypocrisy of the Democrat-controlled press. Trump faced an unrelenting negative press, no matter what his successes with foreign leaders. U.S. press was committed to discrediting Trump, regardless of the many things he did well in foreign policy, especially with Russia, China and North Korea. Biden, on the other hand, has no rapport with any U.S. adversaries because he’s spent his time burning bridges, leaving U.S. adversaries unwilling to cooperate on a host of global hotspots. Biden can’t count of Putin or Jinping for any help with Kim or other foreign enemies.
Kim’s latest ballistic missile tests are designed to get U.S. attention, seeking concessions from the U.S. to help North Korea cope with the Covid-19 crisis and adverse economic fallout. “North Korea is trying to lay a trap for the Biden administration,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor at Ewah University in Seoul. “It has queued up missiles that it wants to test anyway and is responding to U.S. pressure with additional provocations in an effort to extort concessions,” Easley said. North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency [KCNA] state news outlet defended North Korea’s right to ballistic missile launches to defend the country’s right to self-defense. KCNA spokesman said U.S. sanctions were “isolating and stiffly,” acting in a “gangster-like” activity against North Korea. Developing hypersonic missiles was North Korea’s right to modernize its ballistic missile fleet for self-defense.
Blinken called the North Korean missile launches “highly destabilitying,” but, because of a lack of rapport with Kim Jong-un he has no recourse other than slapping Pyongyang with news sanctions. Biden and Blinke have burnt all their bridges with Putin and Jinping to help deal with North Korea or, for that matter, Iran, where it’s only a matter of time before the Islamic Republic causes the U.S. more problems. When it comes to Ukraine, there’s zero U.S. national security interest for the United States. Yet Biden and Blinken have made such a big deal out of Ukraine, it’s alienated Putin to the point that the Russian Federation has lost interest in talking more in Geneva. Putin wants the U.S. to take seriously his red lines when it comes to Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO anytime in the foreseeable future. Biden and Blinken have stubbornly resisted honoring Putin’s demands.
Biden and Blinken need to make an urgent pivot away from the reckless, hostile relations with Russia and China. A good place to start would simply give Putin what he’s asking for, since it’s so very little. U.S. does not need to offer Ukraine any concessions when it comes to joining NATO. If Biden and Blinken would agree to Putin’s demands, it would save face for Russia, at the same time, help U.S. national security, requiring some working relationship with Russia and China. “I think some of this is North Korea trying to get attention. It’s done that in the past. It’ll probably continue to do that,” Blinken said. But if Blinken showed any interest in doing his job responsibly, he’d hold off on the sanctions and work constructively to reestablish rapport with Russia and China. Putin isn’t asking for much with the U.S. to commit to keeping Ukraine out of NATO, a simple request that could pay big dividends.
